After detective Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) is killed in action, he is taken to join the undead police division and is assigned to be the partner of Roy Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges), a veteran officer of the R.I.P.D — the Rest In Peace Department, a department of dead police officers dedicated to protect and serve the living from arrogant, malevolent, bloodthirsty evil spirits who refuse to move into the afterlife.

The film provides examples of:

Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The head of the R.I.P.D states that the dead remaining on Earth are the cause of "global warming, the Black Plague, and bad cellphone reception."

The Atoner: R.I.P.D. recruitment essentially works on this principle. Good cops who have done questionable things in the past that would get them an otherwise unfavorable 'afterlife placement' can serve 100 years to balance out their misdeeds.

Attending Your Own Funeral: Subverted in the sense of being undead. While he's disguised as his James Hong character, Nick does attend his own funeral from a distance. He first discovers that he no longer looks like himself when he sprints in and tries to greet his widow.

Brown Note: A dead-o weapon releases a sound that's harmless to their own kind but cause RIPD officers to move at a snail's pace.

Celestial Bureaucracy: The afterlife is just full of this. Nick lands in an interrogation room that leads into an infinite wall of filing cabinets, then walks into an infinitely tall and deep prison, and finally into RIPD Headquarters which is basically a police station except you can't see the roof.

The Masquerade: Spirits are visible to mortals, but usually stay disguised so as to avoid attracting attention, which neither side wants. A big stink is raised when Nick and Roy chase an undisguised dead-o in public in the middle of the day.

Missing Trailer Scene: "You're dead," and "I don't know which eyes to shoot you between," didn't make the final cut. The "don't tense up" line also gets changed to "relax body."

Ms. Fanservice: Roy's avatar is played by supermodel Marisa Miller, who has posed for both Victoria's Secret and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Nice Hat: Roy's cowboy hat which he loses early on, leaving him quite upset with Nick since he lost it from Nick pitching him into a bus as payback. He gets it back in the end.

Nigh-Invulnerability: The dead, be they R.I.P.D. or dead-o, simply cannot be harmed in any meaningful way other than Magic Bullets. Nick is beaten with rocks and cinderblocks in the climax, and treats it like an inconvenience.

No Endor Holocaust: It's very clear that assembling the Staff of Jericho, even before activating it, causes rips in the mortal world that tear down many buildings. In the end there are still massive holes and no mention of them is made.

Perception Filter: R.I.P.D. officers appear to the living as someone other than themselves. If the intention was for them to be inconspicuous, then an old Chinese man and a supermodel probably wasn't the best idea. Their weapons are likewise disguised; Nick gets a banana. Dead-os also have this ability, but it's nullified if they're exposed to cumin.

Race Lift: An in-universe example. To everyone except other R.I.P.D. officers, Nick appears to be an elderly Chinese man. And Proctor is a tall black man.

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